Journey
by wwgost
Summary: Marking the journey from friends to lovers.  Warning for sex, language  Reno's and mine , and drugs.  All the good stuff.
1. Chapter 1

Journey

_Are you ready for this thing called love  
Don't come from you and me,  
It comes from up above  
I ain't no porcupine, take off your kid gloves  
Are you ready for this thing called love_

John Hiatt—Thing Called Love

Cloud considered it an anniversary of sorts. An odd one, but a date worth marking, when he took one more step toward being the same person on the outside as he was on the inside, so to speak.

It had been the night of his ugliest, and his final, fight with Tifa. The night she tossed him and his belongings down the stairs of Seventh Heaven. He'd calmly gathered up the few things he was interested in keeping, stuffed them in a garbage bag he'd stolen from the bar, and called Reno to meet him for a beer.

"So. I'm moving out. I guess I'll get a hotel room until I find an apartment."

"Oh come on, you two fight all the time these days. How do you know this one's permanent? Not that I think you two are good for each other, that is. Anyway, you're welcome to stay at my place for the duration. Futon with your name on it, yo."

"Yeah, well there's more to that story."

Reno waited for his friend to finish. This was serious.

"After the millionth round of 'Why do you want to move out, why do we have to break up, we can work it out,' I finally told her the damn truth. Tifa, I'm into dudes, ok?"

"Why?"

"Why do I prefer men?"

"Why did you tell her now?"

"Because waking up every day to a relationship that was nothing but obligation was sheer hell and I couldn't do it anymore. She deserves better and so do I."

Reno sipped his beer thoughtfully, hearing a bit more truth in Cloud's words than he wanted to.

"Futon's still open, yo."

Cloud's gratitude was for more than the sleeping arrangements but the two never discussed it further.

Even when Reno figured out why he could never keep a girl around past dawn. Why his dreams were always of hardness and muscle. Why Cloud's words about a life built on obligation never left his mind.

He, Reno, Turk, Manwhore of Midgar, loved men. Not in that abstract, appreciation of beauty way either. In a way that woke him at night, clutching the sheets in the remembered heat of his dreams. When he saw for what it was, it was like learning to see in color after a life of black and white.

Gods.

He never told anyone. He didn't really know how one exactly made that announcement. There wasn't a section in the Edge Times for it, after all. So in typical Reno style, he simply ceased to be straight. He hired a hairdresser to put in highlights and lowlights and class up the fiery color of his hair. He retained a personal shopper to dress him in linen and silk and jeans so tight he wondered if he should wax.

At work, he passed as much as possible for a murder and mayhem Turk. He didn't swish. He didn't _flame_, he _simmered_. If Rude noticed the change, he didn't comment. Not that he would have in any event.

But off work, there was no denying the gay fabulosity that was Reno. His clothes, his mannerisms, the way he smoked a cigarette like it was the best cock he'd ever had…it all screamed "Yes. I'm gay. Fuck me."

And it was a nonverbal message that Cloud was having a hell of a time ignoring these days.

"Cheers!" Cloud toasted his friend at the small streetside bar where they met. Today Reno was dressed in a gray silk shirt and jeans that left absolutely nothing to the imagination. A silver chain, so thin it was nearly invisible, draped his neck at the exact place Cloud longed to kiss. It was an ensemble that a straight man might have worn.

But probably not.

"What's the occasion?" Reno put down the substitute phallus he was smoking to drink his beer.

Cloud did not watch him swallow. Would not watch him swallow.

He watched.

"Second anniversary of getting kicked out by Tifa."

Reno howled, "Oooooooooooh, that's right! The Great Liberation of Cloud Strife. The quietest closet exit in history. Well, quiet except for the Screaming Teefer. She wasn't quiet about that at all, was she?"

"Yeah, I was quiet compared to you. You didn't exit the closet, you obliterated it."

Reno grinned. Cloud looked away because it hurt to breathe.

Suddenly Reno sat straight in his barstool. "I know! It's a special occasion. Let's go for a ride on Fenrir!"

Great. So he got to ride around all day with his hot friend's sexy legs wrapped around him on a vibrating motorcycle. He could just _cry_.

"Sure."

They took a leisurely ride out to a cliff and parked. Reno pulled out a joint and they passed it back and forth in comfortable silence for a while, sitting side by side on the bike. Reno rested his hand on Cloud's thigh and looked at him with mischief.

"Shotgun?"

Cloud's heart stopped beating. He was sure of it.

Their lips met softly as Reno exhaled smoke into Cloud's mouth. Time froze. Reno pinched out the roach and put it in his pocket, returning to Cloud's lips. There was nothing soft about it this time. It was the kiss of a man claiming what was his, what had always been his.

What would always _be_ his. Cloud groaned.

Encouraged by the response, Reno pushed Cloud back until he was straddling the bike. He slid his hand further up his thigh and unzipped his pants. His thumb worked the head of Cloud's penis while the flat of his other palm stroked his shaft.

"Gods, I have wanted to do this for so long," Reno murmured against the wetness of Cloud's mouth. He shifted his way back on the bike and took him into his mouth. "I'm so close already," Cloud panted.

Reno lifted his head and stroked his cheek. "I know, baby. Let me take care of you." Cloud let his head fall back as Reno returned to his attentions. His fingers still pumping his shaft, Reno massaged the head between his tongue and the roof of his mouth.

Cloud's only thought before he came in Reno's mouth was that he hoped they didn't fall off the bike.

Reno licked him clean and zipped his pants, still grinning. "Getting a little chilly, yo. Let's go back to my place." Cloud started the bike and prayed they didn't wreck. Upon entering the apartment, he fell bonelessly, fully dressed and completely dazed, into Reno's bed. Opening his eyes, he was treated to the sight of a gorgeous naked Reno undressing him.

"Happy Anniversary, baby."


	2. Chapter 2

Dance

It was always a little jarring. Cloud looked from a distance as though he should smell like something soft or effeminate. Girly shampoo, or fabric softener. But when Reno was close enough to smell him, he was taken aback to discover, even after all this time, that Cloud smelled like a man. Leather, flesh, a little musky, some unidentifiable fragrance that was his alone, but definitely a man.

It never failed to make a hot hardness pool in Reno's stomach and flow downward in a very pleasant manner.

"What are you grinning about?" the object of his sheerly pornographic thoughts asked. "Nobody needs to look that happy about moving furniture in this heat."

"My chance to see you sweaty and half naked in the middle of the day, yo!"

"Horndog. No, I'm not complaining." Cloud took a long drink from the 'free' beer that was Tifa's payment to the boys for moving the retro jukebox into the bar.

"Pity I can't get you to dance to this thing, babe."

Generally speaking, Cloud hated endearments. It had everything to do with being short, with having fluffy hair, with having a baby face. However, most of Reno's nicknames were uttered when he was being soundly and loudly fucked. Or about to be.

He had to admit, it removed the annoyance somewhat.

"I actually know how to dance."

Giving up all semblance of work to sniff his hot, sweaty, half nude boyfriend, Reno sat on a barstool and opened a second beer. "What? No, I am so hearing this."

"Ballroom dancing. Now don't roll your eyes."

"Nerd."

"With the right music and partner, it can be very sexy."

"Geek."

"I'll show you when we finish. There's an extra blow job in it for you if I'm wrong." It was an empty wager and they both knew it. The only possible way for them to fit in more sex was on a leap year.

"You're on." Reno licked the sweat from Cloud's neck and jumped back into his work.

Roughly a half hour later, the old juke box was in place and loaded with all the CDs anyone had wished to donate. Cloud picked something slow and sensual for his "lesson."

"OK, it's like this. One hand on shoulder, other on the waist, hips flush…"

"Hips what?"

"Touching. So you can feel my every move. I lead. Basic step is a box step. I step back with my left foot as you step forward with your right. Hips tilt forward to accommodate the movement smoothly. Got it? Now…"

Reno followed. The hip tilt rubbed his semi-erect cock directly against Cloud's. He had the sudden feeling he wasn't getting that extra blowjob next February 29.

Unfazed, Cloud continued, "Now your left foot…" until Reno had learned to make a box step. And for extra credit, he had discovered that blue balls weren't fatal.

Tifa was typically oblivious to the sexual tension in the room when she came out of the back. "Oh, you boys are done! Why don't you go home and change, and we'll have a party for the jukebox tonight!"

"You're so getting yours in the shower, Strife."

"Excellent." He didn't look the least bit intimidated.

They didn't make it to the shower. They barely made it inside. Reno pulled off his tank top and Cloud pulled the tip of Reno's nipple against his upper lip with his tongue. And, for lack of a better term, tongue-fucked it. Right there against the front door.

When Reno came back to himself, his pants were still around his ankles, his dignity was somewhere out in the living room, his cock was buried deep in Cloud's ass, and they had added drool and semen to the sweat that already liberally coated their bodies. Wordlessly they continued undressing and showered. Ready for their return to the bar, Cloud slyly asked, "So, want to dance?"

Ass.

They strolled into Seventh Heaven hand in hand. Tifa shouted across the bar, "It's a huge hit! Your tab is on the house!" They nodded mutely, still in an endorphin haze. Rude toasted, "Thanks for all the manual labor, partner."

Cloud snorted. Reno really, really did not want to know what he had done post nipfuck. Assuming that was even a word. At any rate, Cloud seemed no worse for wear. So to speak.

_Gods_. Cloud pulled him out of his reverie and out onto the dance floor. A jazz tune was playing. Cloud called it fuck music.

_The prettiest thing_

_I ever did see_

_Was dusty as a handle on a door_

_Rusty as a nail_

_Caught in the old pine floor_

_Looks like home to me_

Home. Cloud. One of Cloud's hands now tangled in Reno's ponytail while the other thumb hooked lazily in the belt loop of his jeans. Home.

"Um, babe? About this afternoon…"

"It was awesome. I love you."

"I don't remember anything past whatever it was you did to my nipple."

He never broke step. "Just a little tongue action."

"Sweet Gaia. Fuck. Did I hurt you? I hope I wasn't too rough."

Cloud gazed at a drop of sweat that hovered just above Reno's solar plexus. Paralysis could not have stopped him.

He kissed it. Salty. Like sex.

"I took care of both of us. It's okay."

"Thank gods. Thank _you_. I was incapable.

"Call it enlightened self interest. At any rate, you were incredible. WE were incredible. It was the fuck of the century." Cloud chuckled softly, a beautiful sound.

Reno had it bad, all right.

The music changed; slower and more sensual. They kept dancing because they didn't know what would happen If they stopped. _Sharks die if they stop swimming_, Reno thought randomly.

_I'm drinking for the pleasure of falling_

_And I'm falling for the pleasure of pretending_

_That you're sitting by the window waiting _

_For me to come calling_

Reno leaned into Cloud. Gods knew he remembered with agonizing clarity those days before they had spoken to each other of what they felt. Before raw need had trumped social awkwardness on a rural bike ride. Reno had kissed Cloud, Cloud had kissed Reno, and the next thing either of them knew Cloud was laid out on his bike with his dick in Reno's mouth.

Thank Gaia they had parked first.

Reno felt himself harden at the memory, knew Cloud felt it too.

"Let's fuck."

He thought he was having a Reno moment until he felt Cloud's eyes on him expectantly. "Gaia to Reno, I said let's fuck."

"Okay."

"Not here."

"No shit, Cloud. We'll get arrested."

"Not sure of your standards at the moment."

"Bathroom?" Reno suggested helpfully. Raw lust roared in his brain.

"Home."

"Whose?"

"Mine's closer."

"I'll come in my pants on Fenrir."

"Not my problem."

He made it. Shaking and in a cold sweat but he made it. He felt like he should put it on his resume. But Cloud was out of patience and was undressing them both all the way to the bedroom. "I thought you were damn hot in this shirt this afternoon but now it's got too many buttons."

Reno solved the problem by popping open the top button and yanking it over his head, then repeating the action on Cloud. Turk ingenuity at its finest, before Cloud got any more creative nipple ideas.

But Cloud seemed more intent on Reno's mouth and the fly of his jeans and Reno was not in a mood to dissuade him. This felt _good_. "Dancing turns you on this much?" He thought he'd sign up for lessons. Hell, become a ballerina, bright red ponytail pointing straight down to his tight ass.

It could work.

"No, you do."

Never mind.

Then they were naked, Cloud on top of him, all hot soft skin and hard muscle. Reno _loved_ it. Cloud's slick fingers were suddenly pressing up into Reno's ass and seemingly of their own will, his legs parted wider to give him the entrance he sought, and he fucking _loved_ it. Cloud was dying to fuck him, he was beautiful, and he was all Reno's.

Life was good, yo.

It was the last full sentence that struggled through Reno's sex addled brain before his orgasm hit him with the force of an earthquake. He threw his head back, soaked with sweat, and screamed "THAT WAS FUCKING AWESOME!"

Cloud laughed. "I love that there is never any question about how you feel." Reno shifted so that his head was lying on Cloud's shoulder. He could not have possibly been happier, or more sated.

"Love you," Cloud whispered. 

"Love you too. Lots. Bunches. All that shit."

_You are my world._

Cloud angled his head in for a kiss. "Reno, you're a really good dancer. You have a natural grace." _You dance like you fight. Like you fuck._

"Oh good, because I can't _wait_ to do this again," Reno grinned around a kiss.

They fell asleep like that, still entwined with each other, the gentle swaying of the music becoming the stuff of dreams.


End file.
